This essay will discuss the need for the humanities to address visual culture studies as part of its interdisciplinary mission in today's university. Although mostly unnoticed in recent debates in the humanities over historical and theoretical frameworks, the relatively new field of visual culture has emerged as a corrective to a growing…

Argues that in an art world dominated by critical theory the contribution of painting to society and education is not firmly established. Reviews challenges from critical theory to painting and constructs an alternative relationship between them. Articulates how concepts in critical theory are informed and extended by painting. (DSK)

Argues that, far from being a dangerous and destructive break with the past, various factions of postmodernism actually parallel modernist beliefs. Both movements share groups whose creative revisionists approach seeks a constructive accommodation. Similar parallel destructive approaches also exist. (MJP)